The Steps To Investing Many Seem To Take

[dogcom]

Step 1: You hear about a great penny stock and you put in $500 or what ever and it goes down and down and you forget about it

To this day anyone you talk to that doesn't know a lot about investing will tell you they own an almost worthless penny stock that someone told them to buy. I was on the computer yesterday and asked the carpenter I hired putting in a sliding door if he had any stocks and said I could look right now. He told me the symbol and told me the story of a friend who had this great penny story and of course it tanked, I forget the symbol but it was worth 2 cents on the venture exchange.

Step 2: You go to the bank and get the mutual funds with the high MER, DSC and back end loads and hear the story of the last 10 years of performance

Step 3: You slowly get out of all your non performing funds and select or own bank no load funds with the help of the bank advisor after the risk tolerance talk

Step 4: If you are unhappy with step 3 and you go to DIY

Step 5: You then go to get rich quick seminars or hear about great systems on the TV after mid night

Step 6: After this completely tanks you realize it is all up to you

Step 7: If you don't gamble and you are smart and patient then you read and read and then after much time you set up your own stock portfolio

There are a lot of steps here and it seems to me from talking to people that step 3 is as far as it ever gets. Everyone may not go through all these steps and maybe I it is different with you guys but I have met very few people that run their own stock portfolios.

[lonewolf]

Hi, dogcom

Interesting post,


Steps to make money in market.


Step 1: Become an independent thinker that is able to distinguish truth from falsehood

Step 2: Understand the truth is your friend.

Step 3: Develope a strong committment to reason, use commitment to "reason" as the standard for gauging esteam

( esteam is a basic physcological need & is inherent in everone. It entails that one is able & worthy of living & is committed to that which is good & true. Since esteam is a value judgement there needs to be a standard to gauge it)

Step 4: Remove that which is not true & replace it with that which is true with in your mental content.

Step 5: View money as a medium of exchange that represents lifes energy ( if you think money is evil it might be kinda hard to come in contact with it)

Step 5: To your best & honest ability do research to develope a method that fits your personality that gives you an edge in the market.

Step 6: Take responsibility & have the disapline to follow your method.

(of course your method has to take into account proper money management & if your method does not give you an edge or does not fit your personality do you think it will really work ? )

[dogcom]

Thanks for the steps lonewolf this does help for the people willing to invest like us.

But for most people we know or talk to it really ends at step 3 with the no load bank funds. I find it really hard to find anybody to talk to except this forum that would go beyond step 3. I do wonder if it is the same with everyone else on this forum in their daily interactions with others. However I can see people going to step 5 and going to some kind of get rich quick seminar.

[Spudd]

I started with step 3. Then I dipped my toe in step 7, went back to step 1, and now I'm doing a blend of step 5 and step 7, and still holding my step 1 penny stock in hopes it will one day rebound.

[dogcom]

Spudd I went to an investing course run by a broker about 20 or so years ago and bought my first step 1 penny stock it went to near zero over the years and I never closed out the account because it would cost me more to sell it. So like you I still hold my step 1 stock.

[kcowan]

I think you have it right. Mine was Ossington Explorations. Broker was Wood Gundy then Merrill Lynch. Some experience with RBCDS and Canaccord based on IPO participation. Still dabble a bit with CCD on mining plays.

[scomac]

I think you have it right.

Agreed. I think that is a fair assessment of the typical investing timeline. Some folks avoid the penny stocks and the get-rich-quick schemes, but it most certainly is a process that ultimately results in a DIYer. In many cases, the process will continue as your DIY strategies 'mature' over time.

With respect to discussing money matters, I seem to be of the generation where such topics were considered taboo and extremely rude to bring up in friendly conversation. With a few exceptions, all the conversations that I have about investing are with those who frequent the various money forums. I wonder if this is gender related as well as generation related as ISTM that women are more predisposed to discuss 'personal' subjects with their friends and family members. Perhaps that may explain, at least partially, why women have a superior track record to men in investing because not only do they tend to be more cautious, they are most likely better informed.

[Dopplegangerr]

I had my step 1, I lost 1000 on it when it went to zero in a year. The thought is always with me and has made me much more cautious, it taught me to not getting carried away and the real risks involved. It was an expensive lesson but one that I will never ever forget.

Now I am skipping ahead to number 7.

[marina628]

I did all the steps , I lost my shirt on some quick penny stocks ,i even owned bre-x lol. I am in the step 3 phase now ,not so much with my own investments but my husband had 25 years of mutual fund in the 2.5% MER and slowly cleaning up his mess.Actually finding this forum happened about 3 months into the process , I listen with interest to all you guys and have learned a great deal .

[humble_pie]

... With respect to discussing money matters, I seem to be of the generation where such topics were considered taboo and extremely rude to bring up in friendly conversation. With a few exceptions, all the conversations that I have about investing are with those who frequent the various money forums.

another joke about the french & the english.

now the frenchman has a fantastic sex life so he never talks about it. On the other hand, he worries he doesn't have enough money, so he tends to talk about money quite a lot.

the englishman, on the other hand, has plenty money but he deliberately never talks about it. What he doesn't have is a sex life, so he talks about that most of the time.

my ancestors were scottish crossed with a wee drap o' the irish plus a smidgin of métis great-great-great-grandmother 200 years ago. So we tended to be clustered with the french (they all had a common enemy, the english.) The french connection must be why i'm blabby about $$ investing.

in my life, i passed quickly to step 7. Full-service brokers in the 1980s failed to impress. The 1st discount broker for the masses in canada appeared in 1983. By 1989 i'd moved completely to discountland & i thought it was heaven on earth. Still do.

going to J-school helped. Most journos are born skeptics & good investigators. There's a parallel to DIY investing. Both are about getting the story. The real story, not the pixie dust.